Kitz Forum
Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: kitz on October 22, 2017, 01:54:55 PM
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From the Blue Peter Archives
1976: Blue Peter showed off a phone with no cable that you could even take outside. It'll never catch on.
https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/472572483115787/
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Gosh! I wonder what happened to that amazing invention. ;D
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David Alejandro Fearnhead 70s children's tv presenters treat their audience with more intelligence than today's mainstream presenters.
I have to agree, we've become a dumbed-down society - also notice the age of the presenters, not barely out of their teens but close to the age of most kid's parents.
Of course although they heralded the rise of the mobile phone, flares turned out to be a fad. ;)
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Top comment -
I have to agree, we've become a dumbed-down society - also notice the age of the presenters, not barely out of their teens but close to the age of most kid's parents.
Interesting observations about program quality with which I have to agree... Blue Peter in the 70s produced more informative scientific material than ‘Horizon’ does today, imho, a sobering thought. :o
But wearing my pedant’s hat, wasn’t it a ‘cordless phone’ rather than a ‘mobile phone’, in today’s terminology, that they were demonstrating? Still impressive as I didn’t even see a cordless phone until at least 1983, when I was asked to repair one for a friend. :)
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This seems to be the phone - http://www.g0mwt.org.uk/society/mobile-phone/mobile-phone.htm
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Note sure tbh re the equipment on the roof as there is little explanation about the technology. I honestly dont know.
"The interesting piece is fitted in under the transmitter with lots of special circuits which have not only been dealing with the conversational side but the dialing mechanism part which is the tricky bit.
If you use your mobile phone within a 7 mile radius you should be able to .....// ..... ideal for people who havent got a proper telephone handy."
Doesnt say much about the 'special equipment' under the transmitter but its sounding more than a bog standard cordless extension type phone - especially with a range of 7 miles.
They also mention mobile car phones but say what is unique is that it doesn't require dialling through an operator.
A version of the cordless phone was invented in 1968, but Bell Labs had also been dabbling since 1963 and in '64-65 had invented this cordless phone:
http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/wiring-diagrams/doc_view/11603-67jun-blr-p202-experimental-lineless-cordless-telephone or here (http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_details/11603-67jun-blr-p202-experimental-lineless-cordless-telephone).
Seems a bit odd that if Bell Labs had already invented a cordless phone, that Blue Peter should be reporting this one in 1976. Look at the size of that box on the roof compared to what Bell labs had invented.
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ETA Just got warning of another reply as I was about to hit send.
Appears phi2008 has managed to track down the model :thumbs:
The base station for mobile telephone system was developed by Chelmsford Radio Amateur, Lew Schnurr
, which was the guy mentioned by Peter Purvis.
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They invent a telephone and what do they talk about on it? The weather... Britain at it's best ;)